Stalling Parliament is also part of democracy, Sushma says

NEW DELHI: Seeking to blame the government for the partially washed out monsoon session, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday blamed corruption for the lost session, and asserted that stalling parliament was also a form of democracy.

"I would like to remind the prime minister, when he was leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, they had stalled parliament over the Tehelka issue. Even over the coffin scam, they stalled parliament and called us coffin thieves," said Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.

"Not allowing parliament to function is also a form of democracy like any other form," she contended, reacting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that the BJP's stalling of parliament was a "negation" of democracy.

Sushma Swaraj also defended her party's stand of not allowing a debate without cancellation of allocated coal blocks, saying the past experiences have shown debates make no difference.

"They asked us to hold debate either under an adjournment motion, rule 184, or rule 93," she said.

Under adjournment motion, debate is taken up after adjourning question hour, followed by voting by voice vote. In discussion under rule 184 in Lok Sabha, there is a voting following debate as well. Rule 193 is debate without voting.

"Debate under 193 would mean a 'talkout' by the government and walkout by opposition. If we would have taken debate under (rule) 184, they would have won because they have numbers. Numbers however do not give the license to loot the country," she said.

Backing her, her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley called irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks a "textbook case of crony capitalism."

"The prime minister says time has been wasted and this issue could have been discussed. Sad part is that ending corruption was nowhere in his statement," he said.

"We blame corruption for the loss of the session," he said.

Jaitley also said that loss of this session will help in cleaning up the corruption in allocation of natural resources.

"By disrupting parliament, we have given out a message to the country. When we disrupted parliament three years back on 2G scam, the telecom sector was cleaned. Now, the country is faced by the issue, how to cleanup the entire process of allocation of resources," he said.

"UPA (United Progressive Alliance) is a regime committed to kleptocracy (rule by thieves)," he added.

Parliament was adjourned sine die Friday, after a month-long monsoon session that witnessed 13 days of disruption in the 20-day session.

The BJP has been demanding prime minister's resignation as they have alleged that the allocations were made when he was coal minister.

NEW DELHI: Seeking to blame the government for the partially washed out monsoon session, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday blamed corruption for the lost session, and asserted that stalling parliament was also a form of democracy.

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If someone is trying to say that stalling Parliament is undemocratic citing losses worth crores in parliamentary expenditure per day, it must be said that it would be a very narrow and money minded way to look at things. If the means serve an end, then they are worth doing.
If in the end, BJP gets what it demands, which are not unjustified at all, the stalling would be a job well done.
Nowadays the hypocrisy of KhangreAss and Khangressi supporters is brazen. When Congress does it, it is for the nation's sake. When MK Gandhi disobeyed laws during Satyagraha it was for the nation's sake, when BJP does a simple stalling of Parliament, it is for 'cheap political gains'. A convenient way to look at things.

If the means serve an end, then they are worth doing.
If in the end, BJP gets what it demands, which are not unjustified at all, the stalling would be a job well done.

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Yep, who cares that this stalling of Parliament is stalling crucial reform bills from getting through Parliament? If India falls economically and investors turn their back, it will be a victory for the BJP because they will than be able to show how the Congress failed the nation.

Yep, who cares that this stalling of Parliament is stalling crucial reform bills from getting through Parliament? If India falls economically and investors turn their back, it will be a victory for the BJP because they will than be able to show how the Congress failed the nation.

What real bills is this UPA government is bringing that 'stalling of parliament' has really affected the running of the country. The only bill, stupid at that, was the reservation bill by amending constitution to pander to the voting banks. I would rather have parliament stalled than the crooked corrupt politicians going scot-free without any accountability for their actions. This is not the same parliament that our founding fathers envisaged, so I won't lose sleep over its stalling or non-function. :thumb:

What real bills is this UPA government is bringing that 'stalling of parliament' has really affected the running of the country. The only bill, stupid at that, was the reservation bill by amending constitution to pander to the voting banks. I would rather have parliament stalled than the crooked corrupt politicians going scot-free without any accountability for their actions. This is not the same parliament that our founding fathers envisaged, so I won't lose sleep over its stalling or non-function. :thumb:

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Well said DD.

Another thing that the people forget to take the economy forward there are many steps that the govt. can take which does not need approval from the parliament, why don't they take those decisions. Disinvestment in PSUs, FDI, appointments in CIL, NHAI etc all these are stalled not because of the opposition party but because of the allies. The best that Congress can do is to bring a bill which according to their AG may not stand scrutiny of the SC as it violates the principles of the constitution .

Yep, who cares that this stalling of Parliament is stalling crucial reform bills from getting through Parliament? If India falls economically and investors turn their back, it will be a victory for the BJP because they will than be able to show how the Congress failed the nation.

Pathetic politicians, and all those who wag their tails behind them!

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I am not sure which reform bills you are talking about. This Govt fails to even implement an executive order on FDI in retail sector. The coal mines are allocated in between 2006 and 2008 (143 to be precise).Did the Prime Minister / Coal Minister even bother to investigate why only 1 mine is operational more than 4 years after the allocation is done?

They promoted Shinde sahib as Home Minister of India after his great performance in the Power Ministry (2 blackouts in 3 days).

First it was Subodh Kant Sahay, then Dardanelles bros , then comes Mr.navin Jindals, now there is also an MP from DMK in the coal mess. The coal ministers relatives have got huge allocations and he claims innocence, seems he has never heard of conflict of interest.

Latest is Arnab Goswami waving a paper which shows that all these shenanigans wee under the approval of the Hon.PM who was also the coz minister.

Where will the rot end. And all we talk about is the Parliament being stalled.

There have to be better ways of dealing with situations like these. Stalling the parl once in a while, and registering a protest is okay, but continuous stalling isn't the way out. One can only hope better sense prevails because if NDA gets to form the next government, the opposition benches will just continue with the set trend since one or the other controversy will keep happening, or get manufactured, and it will be extremely tough to run this country.

First of all, Congress started this technique when they boycotted George Fernandes, Defence Minister under NDA, for Kargill coffin scam of which he was cleared later in 2009, not letting him speak in Parliament for months. Secondly, the reaction of Congress govt is to deny everything and brazen it out whatever the enormity of the accusations. First deny (`zero loss`), then statements protecting the accused and then some action in which some scape goats are sacrificed. Stalling Parliament is the last resort it seems by the only opposition party BJP, as all the rest are either bought out by Congress (TMC), under the Damocles scord of CBI (SP, BSP, DMK) or against `comunal forces` (communists).

What real bills is this UPA government is bringing that 'stalling of parliament' has really affected the running of the country. The only bill, stupid at that, was the reservation bill by amending constitution to pander to the voting banks. I would rather have parliament stalled than the crooked corrupt politicians going scot-free without any accountability for their actions. This is not the same parliament that our founding fathers envisaged, so I won't lose sleep over its stalling or non-function. :thumb:

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Truely said! Perhaps 'Reservation on Promotion bill' ! Which got delayed and I am happy for this

Yep, who cares that this stalling of Parliament is stalling crucial reform bills from getting through Parliament? If India falls economically and investors turn their back, it will be a victory for the BJP because they will than be able to show how the Congress failed the nation.

Pathetic politicians, and all those who wag their tails behind them!

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Like I mentioned in my post, you :ka: and your masters have a very convenient way to look at things.
Now the session is over, no more parliament to stall. Let them do whatever they like. Another round of crony capitalism, anyone?